“It’s Taco Tuesday all across America,” says the tall, mustachioed bar owner. “But in New Jersey, it’s Gregory’s Taco Tuesday.”
Gregory Gregory — yes, that’s his name — stands inside his well-worn and generally nondescript Somers Point bar. It’s a highly unlikely last bastion of anything, let alone a trademark coveted by a multi-billion-dollar fast-food juggernaut.
Over the past few months, Taco Bell has waged a very public war with Gregory and his modest Jersey Shore haunt Gregory’s Restaurant and Bar. The titanic taco chain has been fighting to free the term “Taco Tuesday” for its own use — even involving basketball star LeBron James. The phrase became available 49 states after Wyoming-based Taco John’s relinquished its trademark back in July (it held the trademark in every state but New Jersey) as the legal battle became too expensive.
That leaves family-owned Gregory’s as the only thing standing between Taco Bell and Taco Tuesday domination. But Gregory’s, which registered the trademark back in 1982, isn’t backing down. It’s the ultimate David vs. Goliath taco battle: an international chain with thousands of locations versus one meager 199-seat neighborhood bar.
“They have more lawyers than I have employees,” Gregory said. “I’m sure they’re going to want to take it to the mattresses, as they say.”
Gregory Gregory, owner of Gregory's Restaurant & Bar in Somers Point, poses with customers who won a door prize on Taco Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Sept. 12, while the rest of the country enjoys DoorDash and Taco Bell’s $5 million taco giveaway — a promotion Gregory believes was implemented to make him look bad — the nation’s most controversial taco event will again take place right here, at Gregory’s. Their signature hard-shell beef tacos are usually $3.50 for an order of two. On Tuesday, everyone’s first order will come with three. Breweries have gotten wind of Gregory’s plight and have donated giveaways like beer-branded bikes, snowboards and fire pits.
During a visit to Gregory’s last Taco Tuesday (aka last Tuesday), the majority of patrons packing Gregory’s long and narrow bar room indeed had plastic red baskets in front of them, chomping tacos with rebellious fervor.
A large banner atop the 77-year-old bar’s entrance reminds this is the “original” Taco Tuesday. If you missed the sign, Gregory will tell you — and anyone else who will listen — the same thing. The gregarious (Gregory-ous?) 71-year-old owner ran around the bar all evening last Tuesday, shaking hands, cracking jokes and asking customers about their tacos like a pico de gallo Pied Piper.
Gregory’s tacos won’t end up on NJ.com’s list of the state’s best anytime soon, they are about as good as you would expect from a bar and grill named Gregory’s. It’s a “super-secret recipe,” Gregory jests — hamburger meat, taco seasoning, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes are placed in a hard corn tortilla shell, and served with a small paper cup of salsa. Gregory says the salsa recipe came from an issue of Playboy magazine in 1978.
Hard-shell beef tacos at Gregory's Restaurant & Bar.
Ironically, Gregory doesn’t even like tacos, or Mexican food in general. But you will be hard-pressed to find anyone more enthusiastic about the dish in New Jersey, or at least the taco-centric event. Tacos are one of the most popular foods in America today — Americans eat 4.5 billion tacos annually — but back in 1979 when Gregory first put them on the menu there was no one in Somers Point selling them. He had to drive all the way to Philadelphia just to get taco shells for the first event. They sold just five orders the first night, and 12 orders the second night. But by the third night they sold out, using all 200 taco shells Gregory purchased. In 1982, one of Gregory’s professors at Temple suggested he trademark the alliterative name, and he’s owned it ever since.
Gregory’s spate of interviews with both local and national media have garnered major business for the bar, even from customers who had already eaten to the Somers Point stalwart.
Daniel Fanelli and his wife live in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, but spend their summers in Ocean City and have been coming to Gregory’s for years — “we knew this place when dinosaurs were walking the Earth,” he joked. They heard Gregory on a Philadelphia radio show talking about the Taco Tuesday predicament and decided to see what all the hubbub was about.
Gregory Gregory, owner of Gregory's Restaurant & Bar in Somers Point, works the bar on Taco Tuesday.
“I’m all in for what he’s doing. But he’s got a little road to hoe here, you know what I’m saying? I don’t know how strong he’s going hold on,” Fanelli said. “Hopefully it works for him.”
In recent months, Taco Bell and Gregory did have discussions about dropping the trademark. Had the corporation offered to make a donation to a charity of Gregory’s choosing, he says a deal could have been struck. But they merely offered him a place in a Taco Bell advertisement.
“Maybe if it was 20 years ago and I was better looking, I might have gone for it,” Gregory said.
By 8:30 p.m the standing-room only crowd had dissipated a bit, and many of the customers had something other than tacos in front of them. But Alyssa Major of Egg Harbor Township was still there, eating tacos with her husband and kids. She’s been coming to Gregory’s since she was a kid herself.
Alyssa Major and her husband enjoy tacos at Gregory's Restaurant & Bar in Somers Point.
“The quality of the products is good. The price, you can’t beat it,” Major said. “They’ve had it forever. So I don’t see what all of a sudden the issue is. The whole time I’ve been alive, I feel like it’s been Taco Tuesday at Gregory’s.”
As wild as the scene got on this Taco Tuesday, Gregory promises Sept. 12 is the main event, the craziest Taco Tuesday in Gregory’s history — door prizes, a bigger crowd, and even more tacos sold.
Everyone is invited. Even Taco Bell.
“I’ll show you what Taco Tuesday is,” Gregory said. “It’s not a imprint on your bag. It’s not a $2 discount on your night. It’s a happening. Come down and be part of it. You’ll see. You’ll walk away and say, ‘yeah, he deserves to have that trademark.’”
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Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com and followed on Twitter at @J_Schneider and on Instagram at @JeremyIsHungryAgain.